Unlike most other pests, this one typically strikes very late, when the paddy crop is already 80-90 days old and in the final grain-filling stage.
Hot and dry weather raises the chances of whitefly attacks, as Punjab’s farmers discovered for cotton last year. This year, it is humid and warm conditions, particularly in September, that has put paid to their hopes of a bumper paddy harvest. The villain: an innocuous-looking insect called the brown plant hopper (BPH).
Unlike most other pests, this one typically strikes very late, when the paddy crop is already 80-90 days old and in the final grain-filling stage. The female moths lay eggs from early-September that hatch within 10 days. The larvae emerging from them are the real baddies. These immature nymphs settle at the lower stem or culm of the paddy plant, from where they start sucking the sap. Since this sap rich in carbohydrates is transported through the phloem tissues to the grains that are still forming, it being sucked also impacts filling.
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